Conservation Strategy Fund provided economic analysis to a joint initiative of the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) and the fish-farming firm, Marine Harvest Canada (MHC). This cooperative venture sought to understand the financial and environmental costs and benefits of different approaches to raising salmon in the coastal province of British Columbia. CSF’s team included consulting economists Glenn Jenkins, George Kuo and Leonard Leung, of Queens University in Ontario. Findings of the analysis will serve the company and CAAR members as they pursue environmental quality in the context of ever-growing seafood market.

Open net-pen salmon aquaculture is now an established part of the economy in several regions of coastal British Columbia. Despite the prevalence of salmon aquaculture in these regions, the industry continues to come under scrutiny. Environmentalists and conservation biologists worry about the impacts of net-pen salmon aquaculture. Community leaders and development advocates are concerned about the economic sustainability of salmon aquaculture and its impacts on rural economies, especially those economies that traditionally have depended on the harvest of wild salmon.